Check this out. The graph indicates traffic to the various campaign sites (top) and mentions in the news (bottom). Romney is blue, Giuliani orange and McCain red. Note the difference between the traffic to the Romney campaign site and mentions in the media. That would be an indication that voters are somewhat more interested in Romney than is the press. Not a huge difference, but worth mentioning.

Web traffic may be the most accurate measure of interest at this point in a campaign. As you can see, Romney has really taken off in 2007. If people are coming to your site, they are also putting in their credit card information.

The MSM talking points on Mitt are that he has more money than his polls justify. But the polls they always quote are national (name recognition polls). They never look at the Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina polls, where Mitt is generally leading McCain and in the hunt with Giuliani.

Then, of course, there is the fact that (eeeeke!) a Mormon.

This past week, the MSM combined the two and ran with "he raised all his money from Mormons" (patently untrue, but who needs to tell the truth when you are a highbrow talking head on cable shows no one watches?). The only word I can think of is... "tiresome".

In any case, the interest in Romney kind of blows those talking points away. Sure he is unknown to most voters. He does not have a national profile this early in the game. But he is raising money, generating interest, and getting people to look for more information. All good.

Here are the InTrade numbers on the GOP presidential race. I think Thompson is over bought, but we'll see.